Recent journalism graduate Allen Carter, 24, credits Valley View News for giving him the skills that helped him get a job in broadcast journalism after graduating. Carter worked on VVN as a reporter where he produced and reported various materials. Valley View News (VVN) is CSUN’s half hour, student-run television news program produced by students in Journalism 445 course. “You have the opportunity to shoot your own stuff,” Carter said in a phone interview of VVN. At the end of… Read more

Single mother to a teenage son, Leah McGowan, 29, has achieved success as a First Lt. in the National Guard and in May received her master’s degree in social work and was presented with CSUN’s First Outstanding Graduating Veteran Award. With all of the obstacles she has had to overcome, friends and family always knew McGowan would be successful. Long time friend, Apphia Taylor said she holds McGowan in high regard because she’s been able to juggle being a single… Read more

When I graduated two years ago from a community college with my associate’s degree in journalism, my son was there. He even wore my graduate medal. I cannot wait for him to see me graduate from CSUN with my bachelor’s degree. Graduating from junior college was special, especially since I graduated high school in June 1999 and did one semester at Santa Monica Community College before joining the Navy in February 2000. I lived in Japan the first two years… Read more

It’s a hard job being a college parent. I made the choice to go back to school in January 2006. By then my son was 4 years old and a few months away from starting kindergarten. He knew his mommy went to school and his teachers would often tell me he would say to them that his mommy was in also in school like him. When I would hear those words it always made me so proud and that was… Read more

As a single college parent, I am working on balancing and sometimes compromising the value of home cooked meals with homework for both my son and I. Dinnertime has been a struggle during my school years. Most days, I get home a few hours before I have to pick up my son and try to start on homework when I could be preparing for dinner. I have compromised making home cooked meals for my child for four years. This year,… Read more

Students from CSUN and Loyola Marymount University will travel to Poland to learn about the Holocaust. CSUN Associate Professor of English Dr. Dorothy Clark along with her colleague Associate Professor of English and Director of Jewish Studies at LMU, Dr. Holli Levitsky, taught the English 495 Holocaust and American Culture class at CSUN and both will be traveling with the students. “It’s a trip that’s intended to be a Holocaust education trip as well as a trip that is meant… Read more

Dr. Karin Duran, a librarian and professor in Chicano(a) studies died Friday, June 11, 2010, of complications from a stroke. Susan C. Curzon, dean of the university’s library, posted a statement on the website of the Oviatt Library where she expressed great respect for Duran as a person and a colleague. “It is not possible to say in a single email the extent of Karin’s contributions,” Curzon wrote. “She loved her various responsibilities and this showed in the high quality… Read more

Over the past weekend, my 7 year-old son learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. I did it mommy, he said. He rode his bike down the sidewalk and around the curve without the aid of my maternal arms holding the handlebars or his shirt.  With tears in my eyes I began to jump up and down because I was so proud of him for so many reasons. When I was married, I always had the vision that… Read more